Mounting/ and vanda questions

[NWBOCHs09]

Hey I'm not too incredibly new around here just read often but lately find myself with a few questions ...

Can you mount a phally to any kind of wood or just certain kinds... I picked up a yellow and purple bloomed phal at lowes tonight for 5$ in great health with new root growth and wanted to mount it to wood...


And... I have three vandas (also lowes) I've had for about a year and a half... They are mounted in a fern bark basket... Which is only 4 inches... Small I know but I'm scared to upgrade them and damage the plant... Anyway... One is red, the other purple and lastly orange.. The orange one I have had to bloom twice during this time period, however my other two have yet to bloom.... I have also had a hard time getting their lighting demands right, but finally think I've got them in a spot they will like... Before I had them were they got morning sun from about 8-11 but they were turning red.... So I moved them slightly back so they are shaded sooner but they remained redish.... I left them there fore several weeks... Still red, so a few days ago I took them and hung them where they receive only a little early morning sun, dappled sun throughout the day till about 3 then sun from 3-4 or so and dappled again. They are already turning green again. I'm also trying to keep them watered more. And fertilizing them now a little heavier with a mix of orchid plus and bloom booster added to distilled water. I spray them with that once a week or so, the rest of the time with distilled water. Any tips with these would help also.


Oh! And lastly... My catleya is producing plenty of new growth but the bulbs are alway striveled... It blooms fine, a beautiful red, but it's bulbs are shriveled... any suggestions here???


Thanks!

[Paul Mc]

I don't have any experience with vanda's and have very limited experience with a similar neostylis, nor do I have any experience with Cattleya's, so I won't remark on those.

However, I attended a lecture on mounting the other day and believe me, you can mount on ANYTHING! LOL... This guy was so funny, he would just go out to the forest and find downed limbs, or pieces of driftwood, or whatever he could and would mount to it. Of course, he also didn't sterilize which several people gasped at! LOL...

Here's the issue with mounting though. You need to be sure your environment can handle mounted orchids. Namely, do you have the humidity to do this. If you do not, then you will find yourself watering them a lot to maintain that humidity. That's why we use pots for a lot of orchids, to help increase the levels of humidity around the roots.

Another issue may be moving a phal from a bark mixture to a sphag base. They may not adjust well, and there have been threads here where people have said they have done just find going from sphag to bark, but not the other way around. However, several people here have great success with sphag for their phal's, so it really depends upon your environment and watering techniques (under/over/just right watering).

Honestly, growing orchids is kind of an experiment for most of us here. We love rising to a new challenge and learning about a new orchid. I would say try mounting your phal since it was a cheap one from Lowes. $5.00 is not a bad price to experiment and possibly lose a phal at in my opinion. If you try mounting it and it seems too much effort to care for, or the plant seems to not be responding well, you can always switch it back to a pot.

I have no experience actually mounting a phal, but I would assume that you wouldn't want to pack the roots with the sphag. I'm guessing you would probably want a little over them, but you'd want them to be able to breath as well. Perhaps someone with more experience on mounting phal's can chime in here.

[tucker85]

I've burned vandas by increasing the light too fast. Once a vanda is established in it's basket and has plenty of healthy roots they can slowly be introduced to a brighter light without fear of burning them. They do develop red spotting for a while but eventually they aclimate. The dappled light location where you have them is probably fine as long as they have enough light to bloom.

Upgrading to a larger basket isn't necessary. Some people grow vandas with no basket at all, just an "S" hook attached to the plant. I like to put them in a larger basket just for appearances so I place the entire small basket inside a bigger one. This way you won't damage so many roots and set the plant back some. Also I don't think I would be using bloom booster fertilizer on vandas during the summer growing season.

With the cattleya, psuedobulbs in the rear will often shrivel up. Usually it's impossible to get them to plump up again. Judge the catt by the lead psuedobulb. If the the newest or lead psuedobulb is plump then the plant is getting adequate water. If it's wrinkled the plant could use more frequent watering.

I've never mounted phals so I can't help you there. Good luck.

[NWBOCHs09]

Cool, I've got a piece of Malaysian driftwood I am thinking about mounting it on... Like you said 5$ isn't bad!

Hmm well I did leave my vandas there for a little over two months.... No change just red leaves and now that I've moved them to this new location the roots seem to be growing and the redness is going away.

Thanks for the advice on bloom booster. I will just use the nitrogen fertilizer for now.

I live in northeastern alabama so our humidity is normally.... RIDICULOUSLY high. I hard grow all these orchids during the spring summer and fall.

Oh and thanks for the advise about the vanda pot I was worried.

How often should I fertilize the vandas?
Is it safe to mount the phal I got last night today?

[tucker85]

I fertilize my vandas once a week with a balanced fertilizer like a 20-20-20. Some people use MSU which has a smaller middle number.
If you're going to mount the phal I don't think there's any reason not to do it now.

[King_of_orchid_growing:)]

You can mount Phals on a lot of different kinds of wood. Just make sure they don't have strong to very strong phytochemical smells emanating from the type of wood you choose for the mount. Phytochemical smells from the wood could be growth inhibitors. One good way to tell if the wood could be used is to look for other epiphytes on them such as moss, lichen, or bromeliads (for bromeliads it depends on where the location is, some southern states in the US will have them growing natively).

In your case, I'd soak that Malaysian driftwood in freshwater for a week, changing out the water everyday, to make sure it doesn't have any salt in it. It could've been drifting around in sea water, which is not good for the orchid's roots.

I don't recommend packing on the moss over the roots of your Phals when you mount, particularly if your growing environment is very humid. An alternative to moss is coconut fiber. If you use moss on the mount make sure the amount of sphag that you put on the mount is only one strand thick and the roots are put on top of the moss, with a few strands of moss draped over a few sections of the roots. I don't recommend covering too much of the roots. Remember, the roots can photosynthesize, and it can be both to the plant's and your advantage to let the roots photosynthesize. Also keep in mind that if where you are growing the Phal is very humid, you don't need much moss coverage over the roots. I highly recommend finding photos of Phals growing in the wild and reading people's blogs about the wild Phals.

If using coconut fiber, you can put the roots over the coco fiber, and maybe have a few strands draped over certain parts of the roots. I wouldn't cover the roots up completely or even a whole lot, a little bit of root coverage is fine.


Note: For those of us who grow orchids in more arid areas, using coco fiber is going to be tough. Coconut fiber doesn't retain much water, especially when it's brand new.

[abigaillevans]

I have two mounted phals -- one's on split cedar and one's on a slatted plaque. Both of them are doing really well, but be aware that when you mount them you have to water them at least once a day.

I wouldn't suggest using pine or oak wood to mount anything: their high sap content means that they can rot away pretty easily. A local grower here in FL uses orange wood with the bark removed, and he uses magnolia wood for mounts, too. Both of those would be available in Alabama, I bet!

[King_of_orchid_growing:)]

If the pseudobulbs that are getting wrinkly are newer pseudobulbs, you may have to water a bit more often.

[NWBOCHs09]

Cool, awesome info guys thanks so much! I wentnahead and mounted the phally today... Glad indid I found that fungus had invaded the lower part of the pot, I cleaned and removed the sphagnum and dead roots from the phal and using string cloth mounted it to the driftwood I was talking about... Turned out very well!

I'm sure the driftwood was fine, I rinsed it myself for several months. It's safe.

Just because the phally didn't have many healthy roots after I removed the moss and dead roots I went ahead and gently laid a few pieces of moss over the roots for added moisture but I'll let it dry a bit before watering.

I also potted the oncidium I rescued as well to find it had virtually NO roots... The roots it had have completely dried up and turned papery... Hopefully the oncidium will survive.

I think I am just not watering my cat enough so I'll start watering it once or twice daily. Its been fine otherwise and has put out three new bulbs this year